Worshippers, shoppers and tourists walked up and down the steps of Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem, as cameras peer down to watch every move, unnoticed by most tourists.

The cameras appear innocuous, as they are often installed on street lighting poles.

But Palestinians emphasise that as nobody has information on the cameras, it is very possible that they might be recording every intimate aspect of Palestinian life in East Jerusalem.

“The building across the street, it has a camera installed on it too,” Ahmad Souleiman, a local activist, said. He pointed towards a almost unnoticeable webcam peering down the steps of Damascus Gate.

“You see how the cable attached to it leads to the roof?,” Souleiman asked. “There is a police station on top of that roof.”

“At least we think so, because the police publishes images from that webcam on the internet, and they watch us from there during demonstrations.”

Souleiman had asked the owner of the building, who claimed to know nothing about it.

“They even live stream those images,” Souleiman explained. “Because people comment on them, and that is a new way for them to collect information.”

There are little to no statistics available on the amount of cameras installed throughout East Jerusalem, but Palestinians say they have seen a clear increase in the amount of cameras throughout the last years.

Hijazi Rishq, 65, who owns a shop on Salahuddin Street, informed Palestine Monitor that the cameras in front of his shop were installed at night, two months ago.

“They did not ask for our permission, and did not give us any information on what the cameras can record,” Rishq told Palestine Monitor.

According to Rishq, there are now six cameras in Salahuddin Street alone. “Maybe 600 in the Old City,” he said.

But Souleiman mentioned that the cameras in the Old City are old ones. “The ones installed on Salahuddin street are new - and they are the smart cameras.”

The new “smart cameras” are easily distinguishable, as they consist of a classical camera shape apparatus, with a webcam-like device above it, and an appliance under it that has the shape of a black box.

“We know they have face recognition and voice recording. The voice recorder has different entrances, which means it can distinguish between different voices in the street,” Souleiman explained.

According to Rishq, the Israelis claim that the cameras are for the security of Salahuddin Street. “They say they installed it to protect us against theft and problems in the street,” Rishq said.

“But if there is a theft here, if a Palestinian does something to a Palestinian, or a Palestinian does something to a settler, and we demand images from the police. They almost always refuse to give them.”

“If a Palestinian would harm a settler here. That settler would not even have to call the police. In five minutes, the street will look like a military camp,” he continued.

Rishq emphasised that he believes the cameras are not for the security of the Palestinians, but the security of the occupation.

“A while ago, the Israeli media was reporting on new cameras that can record the feelings of people,” Souleiman told Palestine Monitor.

“I think it’s that big one up there,” he pointed towards a big rectangular apparatus installed on a camera pole in front of Damascus Gate.

Opgal is an Israeli security company based in Karmiel, in northern Israel. They manufacture thermal cameras for security use. These cameras can detect changes in body temperature to detect nervousness.